EDM and newness.

EDM is such a wide net to cast. I play Tech, Deep and Soulful House along with other genres like Trance, Techno and Progressive. I like to use long transitions loops and vocal over lays to create new sounds. Playing the latest track isn’t really a must for me as I want to try to create a unique sound of my own without being a producer. However, I do try to keep up with the latest pre releases. If you and your friend are talking about commercial/club/vocal/chart remixes then new will always be wanted along with the classics. What do you play?

I used to get that song and dance a lot in the 90s and 00s. I would see guys literally spend $100 per week on vinyl to have “new stuff”, and then ridicule those who didn’t play new stuff all the time…or whine and complain how the clubs are so “behind” and how life is so much better in Europe.

I live by a saying: “Don’t rock a crowd with 20 new promos you just got. Rock them with 20 years of great music.”

Anyone can run out, but a ton of new tunes, and play them. A good or brilliant DJ can make music from different generations work together. Danny Teneglia was big at this with his DTourism night.

My last recent trance mix, Sensational, has music all the way back to 2008 and 2009. Music nuts would say I’m not keeping up, but I like to compile a solid, high-quality set for a mix I upload. I like having good tunes that I have not played in other trance mixes. I’d rather play a set spanning years over cramming together 12-14 “ok” tunes that have a recent release date.

Should you keep up? Yes…especially if you’re a mainstream music DJ. However, that’s really only so you’re ahead of the crowds. So you get a new Lady Gaga tune and then two months later the radio is pumping it and people are requesting it. You’re ahead of the game then.

HOWEVER, when you go outside of what the radio is playing, you can’t keep up. It’s impossible with the large amount of music being released every week. I generally shop once a month, and even then the shopping cart gets many tunes that are months or years old. I just buy what I come across that sounds good. I stopped looking at “release date” as a deciding.

Outside of the big anthems and mainstream hits…pretty much everyone isn’t going to know how “new” your music is. Not even DJs. I can listen to mixes and not know if something is 2 days or 2 years old. Your goal should be to make SOLID SETS and to play a nice variety to the crowd.

The “newness” thing was big when vinyl was dominant…but with digital there’s so much stuff released every week that everything ends up being “new” until the masses have heard it many times over.

I don`t agree with newness being paramount. Its nice to play fresh tracks but not every track released will fit your sound. When I get on beatport I struggle to find more than a couple of tracks I like enough to play.

I don’t understand where he got the idea of EDM being only based on ‘newness’.

In my opinion, if you do only focus on what is new, you restrict your ability to be creative.

It does depend on the crowd, which is where the DJ crowd reading skills come in, but generally speaking I find that most gigs I play require a spread of music, new, newish, and the some classics. Playing brand spanking new stuff all night only really works when you’re entertaining other DJ’s or, more likely, trying to impress them. The crowd are what counts so entertain and, where possible, educate them. Dig out those classic tunes!

TheReturn, post: 28460, member: 2640 wrote: I don’t understand where he got the idea of EDM being only based on ‘newness’.

Before Beatport and DVS, you mainly bought vinyl, or some were all over Kazaa downloading rips and stolen unreleased stuff from the big names. You had scarcity, so one could see what was “new” and what wasn’t.

IMHO…I loved how digital destroyed that. More new people, more competition, and thus more chances to find your own sound and your own unique stuff.

I see it slightly differently; ‘EDM’ is a recent construct, more a sub genre of dance music as a whole, I’d never heard of the term until a few years ago when Guetta, SHM, Skrillex starting entering the US mainstream Top40.

With regard to the OP’s point on newness, for me it’s always been about mixing up the old with the new, a track doesn’t stop being great after 1 month. There’s a good 25 years of House music to choose from.

D-Jam, I hear what you’re saying however I do miss the chasing down of limited quantities of tracks on vinyl, the visits to record shops, building a rapport with the guys behind the counter etc etc – it was also a great way to get gigs and meet others in the local scene; it was part of the DJing experience for me. The advent of digital DJing has seriously reduced my expenditure which is a good thing however there is an awful lot of tracks being released, most of which are mediocre at best. I do find it a little soulless scrolling through various sites, clicking and listening to samples sometimes.